> Lithium, even taken properly, (tho it isn;t the sort of drug one would abuse > anyway) is a dangerous drug and has nasty side effects-like death. As do many > other drugs. > Yes some people benfit, others do not. The side effects are NOT genrally > publiscised and deaths form them are attributed to something else-like liver > failure, kidney failure, heart failure etc when it wasas the drug that caused > it.
To categorize drugs this way is not only not true but a disservice to everyone. If not for drugs, most of us on this list would not be here today. We would have died much earlier. The ascending life expectancy of all humans is a result of medicine and yes, drugs. Writing of liver, heart, and kidney failure. If it were not for drugs individuals with these problems would not have the life expectancy they now have. As far as Lithium goes, yes, if not monitored closely it is very dangerous. All drugs have side effects but to generalize and infer that no one should take drugs is not prudent, or wise. > I think the pushing of pills onto people does them a great dis service.. yes, > they perhaps help in the short term but only by doing the inner work will these > things go away. that takes time and courage and people who know what they are > about when helping people. This is simply not true. Mental illness is caused by abnormalities in the brain and no amount of self determination or self will is going to correct that problem. Many people who need help subscribe to this kind of thinking and languish in a state of utter despair, when they need not. There are drugs to help them. Schizophrenics, for instance, cannot control their behavior. It is as natural as being a homosexual. Drugs can, and do, bring them back into the world. > > the trouble with pills is they change the way a person feels, and all they > really do is shove the feelings further down. this doesn't resolve anything. It > is not different to sometone deciding to self medicate-i.e drink or illegal > drugs. Yes, they do change the way a person feels. That is exactly the point. I could try my hardest, and have and did, to control the demons inside my head. It did not work. Am I weak? Anyone who knows me knows that I am anything but weak. Mental illness is not a feeling or a choice that a person has. That is ludicrous. It is a physical abnormality and the above kind of thinking is one of the reasons that people with mental illness fear bringing it out into the public, for fear that people will think they are weak, or not worthy, or just plain unable to cope with the world. That is one reason that people turn to illicit drugs in the first place. > > Another thing to ebar in mind ais that there is absolutely no proof whaysoever > that mental illness is biological in nature. No chemicals have been pinpointed, > no genes found. yet theis theory, which is all it is, has been genrally accpeted > on hearsay by scientists who really ought to know better. The people who really > benefit are the drug companies, their shareholders and the dr who is gauranteed > ehri patient returns and returns for more 'help'. > > As far as mental illness being genetic. My grandfather, that I never met, died in an insane asylum. I was not raised by my biological mother and did not live with these people yet suffer from the same things that they do. The family that I was raised with show none of these symptoms. This is no different than the color of ones hair or their personality traits, which are most certainly genetic. To infer that it is all a big conspiracy is somewhat paranoid and untrue even though I agree the drug companies do push drugs and are not interested in the well being of the patient themselves. But not everyone, and most surely not every physician or health care professional is pushing drugs with ulterior motives. Without medicine and drugs, we would be as bad off as those who lived before us. Mack
